“Founders’ Day: A Birthday Celebration”

Clayton House Celebrates Founders and Birthday Sunday, October 11

The public is invited to celebrate the past and future of the Clayton House with the Fort Smith Heritage Foundation Sunday, October 11, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. The historic house museum is located at 514 North 6th Street.

“Founders’ Day: A Birthday Celebration” will feature cake and other refreshments in honor of the 175th birthday of William H. H. Clayton. The chief prosecutor of Judge Isaac C. Parker’s court lived in the authentically restored home from 1882 to 1897 with his wife and seven children.

By the time the Victorian home was scheduled for demolition in 1969 after an attic fire, it had served for six decades as a boarding house. The home received new life when Fort Smith citizen Julia Yadon and others stopped the wrecking ball and led a 10-year restoration. The historic downtown neighborhood in which the Clayton House resides, now known as the Belle Grove Historic District, saw the disappearance of many historic gems in the 1960s due to decay and neglect. Still standing are homes built from 1850 through the 1920s. The Clayton House is the city’s only Victorian-era home authentically restored and open to the public.

Photo: A drawing of the Clayton House after it was restored in the 1970s by well known Fort Smith artist John Bell, Jr.